The development of a preliminary rock reef fish multimetric index for assessing thermal and urban impacts in a tropical bay

Teixeira-Neves, Tatiana Pires; Neves, Leonardo Mitrano; Araújo, Francisco Gerson

The development of a preliminary rock reef fish multimetric index for assessing thermal and urban impacts in a tropical bay

2016

Teixeira-Neves, Tatiana Pires | Neves, Leonardo Mitrano | Araújo, Francisco Gerson

We developed a multimetric index for assessing ecological conditions in rocky reefs areas to evaluate thermal and urban influences on fish community. Eight metrics were selected to assess thermal influence: (1) total number of species; (2) number of water column species; (3) number of transient species; (4) density of individuals with low resilience; (5) density of omnivores; (6) density of carnivores; (7) number of cryptic species; (8) density of herbivores. For urban influence, six metrics were selected: (1) total density; (2) ratio between the number of rare species and the total number of species; (3) density of individuals with heavy fishing pressure; (4) number of resident species; (5) number of cryptic species; (6) density of herbivores. This preliminary index succeed in discriminating control/impacted sites and proved to be an important tool to assess impacts that alter fish community and have potential to be used in tropical rock reef coastal areas.

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